I've been uploading for 15 months and I still have $100 to go. 

I've been using Lightroom for several months now and I think I've finally come up with something that works for me.  Firstly, I do not track stats in general.  I let the various agencies do that for me.  Under every directory on my various hard drives (3 right now), I have thre folders. One for midstock, one for micro and one for images that have not yet been submitted anywhere. 

I first submit to midstock and I mark in the workflow section in the metadata which agencies I've submitted to.  For instance, I would use ALS or PSCS for something submitted to Alamy or PSC.  If the image gets accepted, I change the "S" to an "A" or "R" if the image is rejected.  In the "Rights" area in the metadata I add either RM or RF so I don't make the mistake of submitting something as RF at one agency and RM at another.  Anything rejected by all midstock agencies will then get submitted to micro and moved over to that folder. 

I don't keep track of which micro agencies accept/reject the image because there are too many and it's too big of a hassle for the amount of money micro pays.

My method is always evolving.  I too started with Excel, but quickly outgrew it.  I found it tedious to keep up with.  Lightroom is definitely not the perfect solution, but I don't want to buy and learn more new software.

Since I started with micro about 14 months ago, I've been amazed at some of the outstanding quality that can be found on micro. As I learned more and more about the stock business in general over these past months, I began to wonder why would these top-notch shooters even bother with micro because of the very low royalties. Well it was because it was the only viable way into the industry.

When micro first began, there were two options to sell stock - micro and macro (trads like Corbis & Getty). These trads are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to get into without having an established portfolio. So amateurs flocked to the micros. Many of these "amateurs" are now pros but the trads are still difficult to get into. In my opinion, they're slitting their own throats by snubbing these new pros.

However, within the past year we've seen a new business model evolve - midstock. Featurepics, Photoshelter Collection, LO's Sideshow are a few that I know of and, of course, Alamy has been an option for a long time. I think we're going to see a big change over the next year or two. These new pros are going to finally get fed up with low royalties and will start migrating enmasse to the midstock model. And I think this is great for the stock industry.

I'll use baseball terms to compare the various stock models. Micro is a farm league where amateurs enter to learn the industry and hone their skills. Midstock agencies are the AAA teams for the pros. They are pros but they're not quite ready for the major leagues. The trads are the MLB teams and should be looking to recruit from the midstock agencies. They should be ACTIVELY recruiting and not waiting for photographers to come to them!

Now this may not bode well for some of the current macro contributors. Many if not most of them are top notch profressionals who contribute professional work. However, take a look at any of the traditional sites and you will find a lot of crap that wouldn't pass the quality standards of the newest micro site. These are the people who should be concerned with their futures. They need to "shape up or ship out." The free ride is over. The micros are developing an ever-growing new group of professional stock photographers who will eventually leave micro and move on to mid and finally macro stock. The quality on those sites (mid and macro) will increase as will prices once again.

Just my 2 cents.

Your thoughts?

I've opted out at StockXpert and SV.


Yuri Arcurs
Freezingpictures (558)
GeoPappas
Smithore (596)
rene
sharpshot (2756)
ldambies
epixx
latex
FlemishDreams.
RTimages
Vonkara
helix7
Travelling-light
Mjp (994)
northflyboy
ason
sorsillo (538)
boatman
Alex
Eco
Rozmaryna (68)
Pixelbrat
Read_My_Rights (277)
vphoto
faber (300)
dbvirago
cmcderm1
boryak
HughStoneIan
digiology
moori
pixart
fauxware
rosendo  (313)
Lukasphoto
aremafoto (2147)
IKOphotos (1842)
Kiya
erwinova
Velvia
DanP68
Jorgeinthewater
digitalfood
nativelight (195-StockXpert & 213-SV)

I took Bryan Peterson's online class through PPSOP for stock photography which cost me $2K.  Although I gathered a lot of useful information, I do not think it was worth $2K and in the end was disappointed. At the time PPSOP was somewhat new and Bryan seemed to be quite distracted.  Between problems with the site, administering the class, and traveling for shoots, Bryan seemed to be gone more than he was around.  I had heard he's a very good instructor which is one reason I chose to fork over the $2K.  However, I did not get to see that.

Many things have changed since then with PPSOP for the better.  If Bryan has the time to devote to the class now, it might be worth it.  I think I'd much rather do a workshop though.  I don't learn as well online as I do with something "hands-on".

Dreamstime or iStock for me.  ShutterStock can't be my first choice because I can't "feed the beast" often enough to get really good sales there.  When my SS sales fall off (as they are now), I still get consistent sales on DT and IS with old stuff.  The upload limits on IS are a pain so I would probably push DT ahead of them if I really had to make a choice.

Quote from: Achilles on August 02, 2007, 12:23
Chellyar your thoughts are shared. Dreamstime's  severs are located in what is advertised as the biggest provider in the US, with state of the art technology.

I am afraid that I cannot share how we are structured but all requirements and standards are met on our side, with backups put into place and proper disaster recovery. The problem doesn't reside on our side, nor on our own techs team. What we do is to have everyone involved in fixing this problem ASAP as well as ensuring this will not happen again.

Achilles, check out Rackspace.com.  Our company (my day job) has used them for more than five years without a single incident.  They have fantastic customer support.  Of course if it's Rackspace you're using forget my suggestion.